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Author's Notes: This is a Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals one-shot in the style of Nina's Broken Wings, a Breath of Fire II: The Fated Child song fic I made, though this piece itself isn't a song fic. I got this idea from the fact that Jessy, Guy's girlfriend, sits at the top of the screen (for no apparent reason; it's actually been revealed that it's an error!) in the "Tia leaves for good" scene in Parcelyte, after fighting Gades the second time. She has no dialogue in this scene and is not mentioned in this part of the story, and yet, she may be one of the last people you know to see Tia in game. This is that scene told from Jessy's point of view, with a little backstory.

My name is Jessy, and this story is about the time I met the girl who loved the man who would go on to save the world.

But first, let me tell you a little about myself and the people around me. As a child, I was always told that descriptions are one of the most important parts of the story. My hair is long and a light shade of red. My favorite outfit, and the one I was wearing on these few days in particular, is a long green skirt. The blouse I wear with it is white with short sleeves. I'm no one really important in my eyes, but others may find it interesting that I'm the warrior Guy's girlfriend, although he doesn't like to admit it! Guy, with short blond hair, can usually be seen wearing a gray-gold colored breastplate with a white shirt and green pants underneath. His weapon of choice is a halberd, which he holds with both hands. Until that day, there wasn't much to my life; I work at an inn that Guy's family has owned for a long time. My personal job is to act as the cleaning lady. Guy's grandmother deals with the money and pays for maintenance, and Guy's sister Hilda, who has shoulder-length blond hair and usually wears a blue one-piece dress, works the register. Guy repairs stuff if needed and "helps" me with the cleaning, though he'd rather go off to battle... We all live happily in Tanbel, a nice little countryside town.

On the day my life changed forever, Hilda had gone to Sundletan to buy some liquor and tea. Hilda had been planning myself and Guy's anniversary. Hilda's always so sweet... She was late coming home, though. It was, as usual, sunny. Later, when Hilda came back, she told me about a man she met named Maxim. She described him as a quite a handsome man--almost as muscular as Guy, with the most hauntingly beautiful blue eyes, wielding a longsword and a shield, with shining silver colored armor. And, strangely enough, fiery red hair. I mean, it's not so strange to have red hair in this world, but this Maxim fellow's was apparently... well, the color of flame. After describing the man to me, she told me about how he reclaimed the key to the small shrine from the monsters; that's why she was late. After putting the beverages away, she rushed off again, saying she invited Maxim and his traveling companion over for lunch, and she wanted to greet him.

The next thing I knew, Hilda came back with who I assumed was Maxim and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen to meet with Guy. I was going to talk with them too, but I was simply mesmerized by the pair. Maxim was indeed very handsome, and his hair was an odd shade of red. But the girl... she was simply stunning.

She could've been no older than eighteen, from the looks of it. She had long, beautiful blue hair, in which she kept a hairband adorned with a flower. The girl wore a white, tight-fitting blouse with a pink vest over it. As the vest went down, it appeared to be attached to a pink skirt. She looked so sweet, so innocent—how in the world could she be traveling with this Maxim fellow? She had a whip attached to a belt on her waist, so I thought she could fight a little, and then there was the thought that she might be able to use magic... I guess you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Such an amazing girl. Her name was Tia. Let me tell you about Tia—if you had her and Maxim in the room for more than five minutes, you could tell she was quite obviously in love with him. From her actions, to her words, to her sly little flirtations... Not to mention, even if you take the whip and the possibility of magic into account, it's still just a young woman accompanying a man on a dangerous journey. I think the saying "love is blind" might've been applicable in Tia's case... Although, y'know, I don't really think that she ever saw danger in the journey at all.

We suggested the two of them go out and look around Tanbel while Hilda and I made lunch. They agreed, and Guy, my cute li'l musclebrain, invited Maxim to a sparring match. I realized I'd never introduced myself, but I figured I could do that later. Hilda and I just laughed a little and got to work on the soup and the sandwiches. When all of it was done, Hilda went out to see if the boys were done fighting yet, and if Tia was done watching.

But Hilda never came back from retrieving the three of them.

Hilda was kidnapped by a strange man in gold armor. The townspeople saw him and his grotesque lizardmen head towards the southwest tower. Guy was, in his words, "pissed off"! In fact, everyone in town was. Hilda's very loved in Tanbel. Guy started swearing and screaming about how he was going to "blow the whole damn tower down", but Maxim and Tia simply convinced him to go on a rescue mission. Guy's grandmother and I simply waited apprehensively...

But they saved her fairly quickly, actually—it couldn't have been more than three hours she was gone. I had faith the entire time, though. Yeah, I know I said I was apprehensive, but that was about Hilda's safety. I knew they'd at the very least get the jerk who kidnapped her! That's because Maxim had such a great, calm charisma, which made him easy to trust, Tia seemed like a woman of her word, and Guy, well, he's my boyfriend! Of course I trusted him. I always have.

The trio returned later with Hilda in tow. When we got Hilda properly situated in bed, the three of them started talking. I took the opportunity to introduce myself as Guy's girlfriend. Hee, that always makes him blush... Maxim asked Guy if he'd accomany him on a quest to destroy that jerk kidnapper's leader. Guy was conflicted, but I told him we'd be fine here alone. Maxim told me that jerk's leader was a god, and the jerk said it in his own words.

A god... Could it be possible? But, I had already given the OK for Guy to leave. I left him in the Goddess of Fate's hands.

One sunny day a month later, I was suprised by Tia and an Amazon-type woman rushing into the Tanbel inn! The woman accompanying Tia was pretty, but was nothing in comparison to Tia herself. The Amazon had green hair tied up in a ponytail with a ribbon. Her outfit was a light-looking battle dress with a sexy slit up the left. The dress was white with a heavy blue tint. Tia quickly explained that she needed me to help tell the residents of Parcelyte that Seim Island, on which Parcelyte rests, was in danger of sinking! The green haired Amazon, whom Tia addressed as Selan, used the spell Warp to take me with to Parcelyte. After warning the villagers, Tia and Selan ran off again without a word. As for myself, I took up residence with the priest, who had stayed behind in the case of casualties amongst those who stayed. The girls came back, along with Guy and a man in heavy, silver armor with blue spiky hair. The man's name was Dekar. Before I could ask just what was going on, the girls told us that we were to wait for Maxim. So begins my tale...

* * *

So, there we were, all all huddled up together, hoping—believing—that Maxim would return soon. Abruptly, we heard a voice say, "Is this...Parcelyte?" and follow up with, "How did I get here?" Selan recognized Maxim's voice instantly. She rushed up to him. We were left standing in the courtyard of the church, overhearing their conversation.

"Good. That's a relief..." Maxim sighed. There was a brief moment of silence.

"I owe everything to you," Selan continued.

"No, that's not true. I couldn't have done it alone," Maxim gently retorted.

"Yeah, I guess so. But you're really something..." Selan said.

"You're finally accepting me, I see."

"No..."

"Still not?"

"I mean..." Selan paused, "I have for a long time."

"Selan..."

Selan's voice became quiet and emotional. She started crying, and burst out, "Maxim...I'm so... It's nice...to see you again." Maxim seemed puzzled. According to Guy, this wasn't the same Selan he'd first met, the Selan who preferred to work alone and almost considered Maxim an enemy.

"...What's wrong?" Maxim asked in a hushed voice. He was so sweet to her... I felt a twinge of heartbreak for someone I knew loved him even more than Selan.

"I knew you were coming back...and I know this is no miracle—you're standing here...yet..." Selan held Maxim tightly and buried her crying head into his shoulder, continuing. "You're here. You're really here. You're never going anywhere again...right? I...I..."

A little girl with lime green hair walked up to Selan. Her name was Lemmy; she asked, "Selan, why are you crying? I thought you said girls shouldn't cry so easily." So he wouldn't ruin the new couple's mood, Guy hurried over to Lemmy. He got down on one knee, put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile smile. "It's OK, little lady," Guy told Lemmy, "It's OK to cry right now."

We had moved to the bottom of the dais where the church rests to get in the shade. Rather, I was in the shade by the dais, Tia was in the road, and Dekar was leaning against a house with his arms crossed. I looked up at the sky briefly. It was cloudy now; looked like it would rain any moment.

From a distance, Tia had watched the whole scene. She turned to leave Parcelyte. To leave Maxim, Selan, Guy, Dekar, Lemmy, Hilda, myself—everyone she knew—behind forever. She passed by Dekar without noticing him, as I watched from above the scene. "You OK?" Dekar asked. I wanted to scream, 'Of course she's not OK, you dolt! She just lost the love of her life!', but I stayed silent. Tia turned to see Dekar walking over to her. "I thought you were in love with Maxim," he continued. Even this idiot could see it, and Maxim couldn't. That's kind of sad. Tia turned to face Dekar, looking very depressed. Apparently, they weren't going to take notice of me. "Yes...I am...but it's OK. You know what? I won't cry." "Oh?" Dekar said in a questioning tone.

Tia turned away and looked at the ground. "My name is Tia, like the word 'tear'. Because of this, I was always teased and crying when I was younger. Maxim always defended me. One day, he told me, 'People tease you because you cry so easily.' So I tried not to cry, no matter how badly those kids teased me. Then they stopped." She turned back to Dekar. "I've never cried since then, and I couldn't even cry when I really wanted to." She turned away again. "Maybe I just can't cry anymore..." '...Can't cry anymore...?' I thought. "I don't think so," I heard Dekar say.

Tia turned to Dekar, tilted her head and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"The time hasn't come when you'll really want to cry. There's no doubt that Maxim is a kind man, but you two live in completely different worlds. And you know it," Dekar said firmly.

"Yes. I noticed that when Maxim said he was leaving at the beginning of this journey. It's OK now, though—I realized something at the tower... I'm in love with Maxim, but not Maxim the warrior," Tia responded.

"Not the warrior...?"

"I chased him to the tower where Gades was because I was worried. I just didn't have faith in him as a warrior. The mere thought that he may die sent me after him, and I put him in danger. But Selan said she'd wait. She believed in him when I didn't. I waited, too. But, the thought of something awful happening to Maxim just kills me. I don't think I can bear feeling this way every time Maxim goes into battle." She paused for a few seconds. "....It's true that I love him even now, but that's why I don't want to be in his way."

"You're not going to say goodbye to him?"

"No." Tia shocked me with that statement. 'If you love him so much, why not say goodbye?'
She answered my unspoken question with this: "If I see him now, I may cry. I decided long ago that I'm not going to cry over something so trivial."

I was on the verge of tears. Tia took it all in stride—even calling losing the love of her life 'trivial.'

"Heh, I am great at swordsmanship, but I'm also great at cheering people up!" Dekar said, winking with a smile.

Tia laughed a little and said, "Really, thank you. Tell Maxim I'm going to go find someone just as good as him—no, even better!" She turned and walked until she was out of sight. You could just audibly hear the spell Warp being cast in the distance...

'Tia, it's OK,' I thought as the tears began to fall. 'I know that you want to cry so badly right now. So I'll cry for you, Tia.' It finally started to rain.

"She's..." I shook my head. "It's fine, Guy. Everything's," I paused to sniff, "fine." Even as I said that, I was still crying. Guy, although he's my cute little idiot, didn't buy it, but didn't ask any questions.

"Well...come on inside the inn. We're going to stay here until the rain stops." He wrapped his arm around me and led me towards the Parcelyte Inn, comforting me.

While everyone was up all night partying, I was in my room, sobbing. I never stopped crying once that night. I was shedding tears for Tia; I will always remember her.

Fin.

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Author's Notes: Well, how was it? I touched up some of the original dialogue to suit my tastes. That's probably why it took such a short time to write, heh. Anyway, It was fun writing for Jessy. Since she's basically a blank slate, I could write her any way I wanted, and so I made it so that she's snarky, but soft-hearted. Remember, comments are always nice!
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Last edited by vivify93 on Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:55 pm, edited 8 times in total.

ah the dialogue in this game is truly amazing, reading that actually put a perfect reenactment of that whole scene in my mind, i actually teared up a little, one of my weaknesses is putting myself in the characters place, i try to feel what they are feeling in that moment of time, and cause of that i seem to get emotional pretty easily, even for a guy my age...

You have no idea how thankful I am of that. I was about to delete it when I came back and saw your comment. I'm glad you liked it, even more glad you commented. This was pretty much the last fan fic I wrote before I stopped for God knows why. I touched it up a little before I posted, and I'm sure that was the real seller here.

To be honest, I'm not all that confident about my fan fics... No one's ever really read them before aside from some close friends, and friends usually tend to be biased and favor whatever you write, even if it's "Twilight" or "My Immortal". I was also especially concerned about writing for such a passionate fanbase about such an emotional game, but apparently, it's spot-on!

Thank you, really! It's an honor for the great Lêi Trigar to compliment my work.

EDIT: Oh, as for the "perfect reenactment" thing, I tried to be as detailed as possible--by writing the "Tia leaves" part of the story as I played through it in game.

Be proud of what you create. Look at it with critical eyes, but be proud of it when you decide it passed the test. I'm glad you didn't delete it, because it's not bad at all

The point of view you've taken is rather interesting, in my opinion. I don't usually read fanfics, so I can't say if it's a unique approach- but you did a good job on it nevertheless. The way you describe the characters seems to be in line with my memories of the game, and the contrast between Jessy's thoughts and emotions and the rock that is Tia is interesting.

It was a nice read, thank you!

Tony

PS: I never once linked the name Tia with 'tear'... can't believe I missed that

Anthony wrote:Be proud of what you create. Look at it with critical eyes, but be proud of it when you decide it passed the test. I'm glad you didn't delete it, because it's not bad at all

Thank you!

Anthony wrote:The point of view you've taken is rather interesting, in my opinion. I don't usually read fanfics, so I can't say if it's a unique approach- but you did a good job on it nevertheless. The way you describe the characters seems to be in line with my memories of the game, and the contrast between Jessy's thoughts and emotions and the rock that is Tia is interesting.

There's contrast? I didn't really pay attention. Looking at it after you pointed it out, yeah, I can totally see it.

Anthony wrote:It was a nice read, thank you!

Tony

PS: I never once linked the name Tia with 'tear'... can't believe I missed that

She even says that line in game, although it's not as blatant as I rewrote it. It's something like "I am Tia, like tear." I suppose it makes more sense in the Japanese version, where "Tia" is spelled similarly to the Romaji version of the English "tear" (tiaa).

Hey, if you post a story, you should give people the time to read it! Yes, very well done. The ending was moving. And I like the way you made a story behind a simple detail like that; I didn't even see her at first.

Heh... the problem with my fanfic is that it's LONG. Which is why not many people will read it. Perhaps I'll try making a short one like this sometime. Problem is, whenever I make up a story, I keep wanting to make it deeper.

But we were talking about your story. ;P So, well done. Are you going to post some more of your fanfics?

Guard Daos wrote:Hey, if you post a story, you should give people the time to read it! Yes, very well done. The ending was moving. And I like the way you made a story behind a simple detail like that; I didn't even see her at first.

Thank you!

Guard Daos wrote:Heh... the problem with my fanfic is that it's LONG. Which is why not many people will read it. Perhaps I'll try making a short one like this sometime. Problem is, whenever I make up a story, I keep wanting to make it deeper.

So long as it's not 50+ chapters of filler, it'll be good!

But we were talking about your story. ;P So, well done. Are you going to post some more of your fanfics?

I-I only really have three... The first one, the Breath of Fire II one, isn't that good, and the other one's a Sailor Moon fan fic with original characters, who are, let's face it, Mary Sues... I haven't had the inspiriation to write in a long time.

DarkMaster2101 wrote:it is too often that someone re-tells an event via short story or novel is too common that I'll have to take off points for originality.

Mm, yeah, I know it's kinda hackneyed. Still, this is my favorite out of my works so far.

DarkMaster2101 wrote:However, you told the event in a different approach (through the memoirs of Jessie) and detailed the event perfectly for that you get bonus points. Yay! I love it! More...

Yay indeed!

As for "more", if Tia's really loved around here, I could try to write something on her quest for love... I mean, obviously she doesn't return to Elcid until Maxim and co. are at least in the Fortress of Doom, so we've gotta find out just exactly what she's doing until then. No promises, though!